3/17/2006 @ 7:35AM

Google's Billionaires Go Buying

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company shelled out $130.5 million in cash and stock in 2005 to snap up 15 companies. In 2004,
Google
spent $56 million on four purchases. Google made the disclosure in its annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday.

Some of the companies barely qualified, with five getting accounted for as asset buys instead of business combinations because they were technically “development stage enterprises.” The companies it bought included Web analytics player Urchin and the two-person shop of Dodgeball.com.

Google also spent $400,000 on an unspecified patent last year.

The splurge has continued this year, with Google grabbing @Last Software, a maker of 3-D design software, and browser-based software player Upstartle. Both buys happened this month (See “Schmidt’s Google Buys 3-D Tool Maker“).

Google also agreed to spend as much as $1.1 billion on radio advertising company dmarc Broadcasting back in January.